Congratulations to First Steps, Pontypool for becoming Run Wales Group of the month for December 2017.
First Steps was set up in 2013, initially to attract more members into Pontypool & District Runners, (which at that time was a new small club). We realised so many people were intimidated by clubs and club runners, but still wanted to run, so we decided to give the our beginner, or social group it’s own name that distinguished it as a separate group.
The Aim of Group:
- To successfully introduce running in a safe and enjoyable manner.
- To demonstrate good practice
- To keep participants motivated to progress
And of course, to make running fun!!
Who is it for? Those completely new to running and/or those coming back from long term injury/layoff
Background: On our launch night, there were just two of us… so Bean and I mapped out a short course, (so the evening wasn’t a complete waste of time). Back to the drawing board, a bit more communication and social media activity – and slowly word got around and we grew, and grew… and grew some more.
We have grown to a group regularly attracting 80+ runners a week, and the number of Leaders has grown from 1 to 14, and we have 4 Leaders trained to support visually impaired runners too.
We soon realised that driving members into the ‘official’ club was actually just a secondary reward – the main rewards are helping people achieve their goals, supporting our local community and sharing our expertise.
This year, over 30 First Steppers did their first 10k race, we received this feedback – “thank you guys, without the time and effort your guys put in to this group, today wouldn’t have happened. Thank you again”
We also saw a small group moving on and completing a half marathon together.
The dedication and commitment of the Leaders has been crucial to the success of the group. Thank you all!
Fancy joining our group …find out more here
Could your group be next months winner?
Every month, we award this title to one the fantastic social running groups registered with us (if you’re not then just complete this form). The winning group is announced at the start of each month, and can be awarded for a number of different reasons.
We love hearing from Runners and Run Leaders as to why your group is fantastic! Send us an email saying why you’re nominating your group, give us a little background, your successes to date and any feed back or mentions you’d like us to highlight!